May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s trading arm
aims to triple the volume of refined crude products it buys and
sells to 1.5 million barrels a day “in the near future” to
meet the country’s growing demand, the unit’s head said.

The unit, Saudi Aramco Products Trading Co., has bought and
sold an average of about 500,000 to 600,000 barrels a day of
energy products since it started operations at the beginning of
the year, Said Al-Hadrami, its chief executive officer, said at
a conference in Bahrain today.

Aramco Trading, as the company is known, has agreements to
buy refined products from its parent company at spot prices and
began operating as a separate unit to market products from the
state oil company’s domestic and international joint venture
refineries, he said. The company won’t deal in crude oil, Al-Hadrami said at the Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference.

Middle Eastern crude producers often import products such
as gasoline and diesel because they lack adequate refining
capacity to meet domestic demand. Aramco Trading is tasked with
buying products like gasoline and diesel fuel to meet domestic
demand in the Persian Gulf state, Al-Hadrami said.

Vitol Group, an independent trader, deals in about 6
million barrels of oil equivalent a day, CEO Ian Taylor said at
the same conference. Vitol is expanding to have a physical asset
base, including refineries, oil and gas production and storage,
to offset low trading margins, he said.